MONA CHAREN

Democrats and other democracy well-wishers are spilling gallons of ink and a profusion of pixels on the question of whether ending the government shutdown was a blunder or not. I submit that either way, it won’t matter very much if at all in 12 months — and the 2026 elections are where our attention needs to pivot right now.

After the most depressing year in American politics of my lifetime, the 2025 election results were like a defibrillator shock to a moribund body. The landslide percentages achieved by Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill; the record-smashing turnout in New York City; the huge Democratic gains in the Virginia House of Delegates; the sweep of three state supreme court seats in Pennsylvania; the lopsided results in obscure Georgia races, like for the public

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